QLD Police target car enthusiasts

Queensland police have been criticised for deliberately targeting one of the largest ever car enthusiast events to be held in the state.

The “DownShiftAus monthly shown and shine meet” , which was held last Sunday at the Rocklea showgrounds in outer Brisbane was attended by more than 1200 cars and thousands of enthusiasts. It was promoted as a family friendly day of fun for car lovers in Brisbane.

Vehicles from Porsche cup cars, Italian exotics to modified Japanese and American cars as well as dedicated drag cars showed up for what was expected to be a “chilled afternoon”. The promoters had positioned the event as a peaceful day out, with the specific instructions of “No Skids, No stupidity. Don’t give the cops a reason to turn up!”

Regardless of the exemplary behaviour of the attendees, up to 30 Queensland police officers and a special traffic task force blocked the entrance and exit to the event, which was held on private property, specifically to target modified vehicles.

In an open letter to Queensland premier Campbell Newman on Facebook, which has now received more than 5,000 likes and hundreds of comments, Matyas Fulup, the event’s organiser said:

“Yesterday, I organised one of the biggest events for car enthusiasts that Queensland has ever seen, at the Rocklea Showgrounds. Over 1200 vehicles attended from a range of enthusiast disciplines from four-wheel drives to classics, drag cars, Japanese, and supercars. The Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs and the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party also attended and made presentations, making this a political meeting as well. The behaviour of attendees was exemplary – I have never seen so many enthusiasts behave so well. There were no burnouts, no skids, and no antisocial behaviour whatsoever. The event was legal, held on private property and registered with the Special Interest Vehicles scheme.

Despite this, Queensland Police set up a sting operation where officers from as far afield as Ipswich were invited to shoot fish in a barrel. I immediately spoke to officers in charge at both locations, but was met with arrogance and an inability to be reasoned with. At one point, an officer compared defecting car enthusiasts to, I quote “if you want lollies, go to a candy store”. I have heard of dozens of stories of unreasonable force by officers. One example was where a representative from a Holden car dealership brought along a brand new vehicle from the lot to display it, and was held up for 30 minutes while officers went over it with a fine tooth comb in an effort to find something wrong with it. When he protested, he was told that they would keep going until they found something.”

The Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party Queensland senate candidate Keith Littler, who was at the event told CarAdvice he was deeply saddened by the manner in which the police deliberately targeted attendees, noting that the constant and deliberate police emphasis to target car enthusiasts has to stop.

Due to a completely unrelated matter, a child (who was not part of the attendees) had gone missing inside the showgrounds, however none of the 30 attending officers stopped inspecting cars to find the child.

“The icing on top of the cake was when two officers attended from another branch closer to the city, and requested to gain access to the grounds to find a child who had been missing for over 2 hours. We assisted them to locate said child, who has been reunited with his family (and had a great time at the event). The community has rightly questioned why the 30+ officers who were manning the defect stations were unable to lower their fine books to look for a missing person for a few minutes, and the more cynical have suggested that it may be that locating a child doesn’t pay as well as fining people for truly trivial things such as slightly too dark window tinting (which I may add was done using un-calibrated equipment).” Fulop said.

Littler told CarAdvice that it was obvious the police were more interested in targeting specific vehicles than looking for a missing child, which he said was a “sad state of affairs”.

Queensland premier Campbell Newman responded to Fulop’s message on Facebook by saying that he agrees that it’s not okay to single out car enthusiasts.

“You should know that you can refer this matter to the Crime and Misconduct Commission for investigation. If you are not comfortable contacting them directly, I would be happy to refer this issue on your behalf if you provide me with specific details of what happened and your contact details.”

A video of the event has been put online which includes footage of the police traps on the service road that leads to the Rocklea showgrounds.

Have your say in the comments, should Queensland police have deliberately targeted the attendees or has this gone over the top?

Meanwhile, whilst these 30 officers were defecting vehicles for no apparent reason, there were surely plenty of morons out on the road talking on mobiles, swerving across lanes, not indicating etc. etc – in other words, truly driving in a dangerous manner, and not getting picked up by the police. Of course, defecting cars and standing on the side of a road with a radar gun is easier than actually getting out on the roads and policing truly poor and dangerous driving.

Paradox

Things like this anger me, and as a result, skew the view I have of the police force. While I have no issue with non-corrupt, hard working people trying to just do their job, especially by serving the community in a proper manner, when their attitude is like the one explained in this article, amplified by the fact they rather book enthusiasts than look for a missing child, I can’t help but just get angry about the whole thing.

Sumpguard

Unfortunately enthusiasts get tarred with the same brush as the halfwit in the XR6 flying up my street at twice the speed limit each night.

guest

The Gallardo and LP640 that go blasting up my road at 160km/h+ in a 70 zone are just as guilty as the WRX, Silvia or GT-R driver who do the same. And also guilty are the old muscle car drivers pulling burnouts all the time, or having so much difficulty driving without loudly wheelspinning and acceleration.

If they have so much difficulty to accelerate without wheel-spinning, maybe they shouldn’t have the car.

I like nice cars, but I hate it when they go hooning up and down the local roads.

Well done to the Police for what they are doing here. Maybe I wouldn’t have such anti-car club view if some of these groups would behave more sensible on the roads and drive in a manner that doesn’t cause danger or interruption to others, particularly residents.

James

So your going to tar everyone with the same brush? Are all muslims terrorists as well? How about all woman being bad drivers? There are bad seeds in every group but it is very sad for somebody so simple minded to group everyone together. As stated everyone at the event was well behaved

Brad

So how are you going to feel when i call you a whinger who has no idea? Surely your attitude must put you in the same basket as every other whinger out there who cannot appreciate that not all people who drive modified cars are hoons.

I could go on with the insults that are commonly thrown around about people with your attitude but tarring you with the same brush is not the right thing to do is it?

guest

Some of these people probably also say that all cyclists break the law, because they saw one or two breaking the law?

That’s the way it works now. If you don’t want to be tarred with the same brush, then car enthusiasts should start doing something about hoon drivers. Until hoon drivers are stopped, people will continue to demand actions like this.

Billy

Why don’t parents stop having kids because kids cause trouble?

Allen

so your saying that true enthusiasts should become vigilantes?

Tell me, how is it MY job to ensure compliance of OTHER drivers on the road?

maybe YOU should do it, the actions of individuals is none of my business!

Mrv

its obvious the guest person is a cyclist. whats wrong m8 don’t like sharing the road with bigger toys?

Mrv

sorry Allen that was pointed at guest not u m8

guest

No, not a cyclist.

Edward

In my experience im usually targetted too because i have a modified and lowered hot hatch, but im always civil and decent when they pull me over. So 95% of the time it ends well for me.

Its definitely annoying to be targeted, but dont escalate the situation by acting like someone they would want to book. Its always the rotten few that ruin it for the rest of us. Just my 2 cents on this

Matt

Where else is the money going to come from to stock up the Krispy Kreme doughnuts? The cop in one of the pics has more chins than a chinese phonebook and rides a bike?? Isnt he overloading the bike, therefore breaking the law himself?

amlohac

An easy pay day for the QLD Police Force.
And they wonder why car clubs, and the younger people have such as poor view of the police. I’d be very interested to hear a response from the QLD police commisioner about the whole saga.
Fair enough police are paid to do a job, and a bloody hard one at that, but sometimes they forget about the “descretion” part of that job. If they really wanted a show of force and actually cared about public reaction they would at a maximum educate those drivers who might have done the wrong thing, not throw the book at them, or look to defect a brand new showroom vehicle.
Very poor form.

Gus

And the police wonder why they command zero respect from the general public

guest

The general public have had enough of hoon drivers. And the Politicians and Police know it. Hence this sort of stuff.

Gus

hitlers gestapo eliminated jews based on upper level directives with the reasoning that jews were a plague on humanity. this is EXACTLY the same, prosecution based on fickle reasoning by some pitch-fork wielding, high horse riding mob without an investigation or third party peer reviewed study to confirm a direct correlation with modified vehicles and road fatalities/casualties

guest

Same as many of you in your war against bicycle riders. You prosecute that all bicycle riders break the law, because you saw one or two breaking the law. No real difference, except that car drivers are the target this time.

Perhaps if hoon drivers didn’t break the law, this wouldn’t happen.

And by the way, compulsory rego doesn’t seem to stop hoon drivers from breaking the law.

Hugo

Well, that was zero-to-Godwin in four point six seconds.

LC

Car enthusiasts aren’t hoon drivers They’re two very different types of car owners.

One group takes great pride in looking after vehicles; keeping a nice car in good shape is a hobby to them, like stamps for a stamp collector or model train sets and train memorabilia for a train enthusiast. They wouldn’t be caught dead putting their cars (which they’ve likely spent $10,000s on) in a position to destroy them mechanically or crash them.

The other group thrashes their cars like no-one else does, and dangerously drive around city streets putting lives at risk in an old clunker they picked up for $500/in their parents car/in a car their parents bought for their little darling who could do no wrong. They have no pride in their cars, they see them as little more than a tool to do stupid s*** with.

But thanks to the media, the line between the two has been blurred nicely. They certainly got you hook, line and sinker.

LC

The media like to waffle on about the road toll. But that’s not something that’s easily fixed because of the human factor behind car operation. There’s always idiots, and there’s always potential for mistakes to be made, and sometimes they have tragic consequences. This will apply even for self driving cars, the only difference being it’ll out of the hands of the driver and into the hands of whoever programs the autonomous drive systems. We aren’t perfect, we will make mistakes, sometimes with tragic consequences. That’s life, and it’ll take a very brave politician to remind people of that.

Still, the police have to look like they’re doing something to combat the road toll, for appearances. Motoring enthusiasts are great target for politicians, the police and the media looking for a single scapegoat to pin the road toll on, because that’s easier than acknowledging it’s a multifaceted problem which has no easy solution. Hence they blur the lines between hoon and motoring enthusiast, and the enthusiasts get targeted. This isn’t new, and I’m amazed that the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party wasn’t founded earlier because of it.

Here’s hoping some of those brave politicians reside in the various libertarian-minded parties that have sprung up over the last 5-7 years, including the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, the ASP and the LDP.

Paul

Exactly right in western Australia just today an idiot for no reason cut across a median strip that had a lot of vegetation and hit a on coming car. With common sense their would not have be two fatality’s. Then these instances of loss of common sense compile, the government lowers the speed limit when drivers education is all the needs to be done.

Robin_Graves

Who’s to say he didnt have a heart attack? Bit early to judge that one and call a dead guy an idiot.

Mike101

Its all about the money guys, they hit the jackpot, they kno all these guys with their nice cars can afford to pay the hefty fines, whereas finding missing children or aprehending junkies at your local train station provides them with no revenue.

JooberJCW

Exactly, all to do with balancing the budget. Likewise with getting silly fines for having your elbow sitting on the car window sill whilst driving or slightly over the line at a red light, its easy money with no common sense

F1orce

Using a phone while driving is a much bigger danger than speeding ever coud be.

Yet I see far more people on their phones while driving than people exceeding the rather very slow speed limits..

JooberJCW

True,

Also maybe the cops should camp out at every pub or drinking watering hole, and nab every drunkard hopping into their vehicle as a driver.

MisterZed

Sounds alright to me – get these bogans in their unroadworthy rubbish cars off the road. If you have a decent roadworthy car, you have absolutely nothing to worry about anyway.

matt

thanks for the narrow-mindedness.Eventually it will be your civil liberties being infringed upon, just remember you could have help stopped it long ago.

No I’m just saying it was a smart move by the police, because having so many unroadworthy cars in one spot was the perfect opportunity to issue fines. A lot of the rest of the time these cars are on private property where nothing can be done about them. The more unsafe cars are off the road, the better it is for everyone.

matt

Serious question, How does having wider tyres, larger brakes, or better suspension parts than a vehicle came with from factory make it dangerous and justifiably taken off the road?

Defects are handed out for these things. Wake up Sheeple, just because the media and government are telling you car enthusiasts are modifying their cars dangerously, you may be surprised to find out we are not fitting spikes, chansaws and rockets to make them the most dangerous, lethal weapons on the road

JooberJCW

haha good one I sometimes see utes with a massive bull bar in front (so much for pedestrian safety), cops just casually pass them. Maybe they just know these guys can’t afford or skip paying the fine which actually would cost the state more to follow up and enforce.

ignorancebuster

It’s general ignorant attitudes like this that allow the powers that be to do unbelievably unreasonable things like this. We aren’t ‘bogans’ and our cars aren’t rubbish. In fact I’ll hedge a bet my modified vehicles are far safer than the most likely neglected vehicle that you drive, also that there is quite a vast spread of people that enjoy cars/motorcycles, from all walks of life. Just because you haven’t modified it doesn’t mean that it’s any safer than a modified vehicle, in many cases quite the opposite. The point of modifying vehicles is to make them better than the made to cost components that come from the factory. Compromises are made in manufacturing and many of us modify to rectify this. Please don’t force your ignorance on others any longer. Go elsewhere to a topic you know more about.

MisterZed

I don’t have anything against modified vehicles. I just have a problem with unroadworthy ones. A lot of these “hoon” cars have bald tires, a non-working headlight/taillight, or are otherwise in very poor shape. The people spend all the money on aftermarket accessories (i.e. stuff you can see) but neglect the general maintenance of the vehicle – i.e. the hidden things.

ignorancebuster

They aren’t “HOON” cars. Please cease calling them that. It’s insulting and not a name we relish. They’re modified vehicles, not criminals. Sad to say quite a lot of ‘normal’ cars are also in poor shape. However they don’t get targeted. This to me is discriminatory. I see plenty of mums driving kids to school in 4wd’s with bald tyres, brake lights out, flat tyres, non working headlight/tailights, heavily lipped brakes, plus who knows how many have flogged out bushings, bearings and are thousands of km’s overdue for a service. ‘The people’ may spend money on ‘aftermarket accessories’ but I can guarantee you from someone in the ‘scene’ that a vast majority of dollars get spent making sure the car is top working order. Regardless of the little things like light bulbs…. As an enthusiast with an interest in cars you are generally more tuned into, and more interested in up keeping it. You read too much propaganda and know too little about vehicles to give an educated opinion.

guest

People associate modified cars with the hoon drivers, because they see the elaborately modified (and loud) old Falcon or Camaro or other car pulling burnouts and racing on public roads.

If this didn’t happen, people wouldn’t complain or call them “hoon cars”.

This street racing isn’t rare. I could video it every Friday, Saturday or Sunday night and get plenty of evidence against them.

I don’t have anything against fast cars, but there are race tracks – use them for going fast, and otherwise, drive sensibly on the roads.

It may well be the minority that is doing the wrong thing, but that minority is a very visible minority. So they’ll continue to ruin it for the majority who may do the right thing.

Brad

We use the drag strips and race tracks in Sydney and still get done. Police set up outside the venue and do the same thing. Pull everything up and defect it,
Its a bit like the current drink driving ads we have at the moment. make the train your plan B, yet your not allowed to be drunk in public or they will haul you off to the drunk tanks for the night to sober up….
your damned if you do and damned if you dont unfortunately

matt

modified cars, “hoon cars” and unroadworthy cars are all different things, stop throwing them into the same collective.

1. Hoon cars don’t exist. Idiots hoon in any type of vehicle, be it boat, bike or car

2. modified cars are owned by enthusists and are generally maintained better than your average motor vehicle

3. unroadworthy cars is obviously anything. Be it the soccer mum with a blown tail light on her suv. Or the poorly maintained camry thats driven into the ground and is leaking oil everywhere and has been involved in numerous fender benders. And yes, the modified car which is below 100mm, which is apparently one of the most heinous crimes one can comment these days

Sean

I usually drive around in a falling apart Volvo station wagon where it barely runs and never get hassled by the police. Yet I know one of my friends who bought a Nissan skyline with everything in working order, it was the exact car he wanted but he sold it after a few months because it wasn’t worth getting pulled over by the cops at least once a week.

G

I was considering a Skyline for a while until I realised how much of a headache it would be owning one. Not because they are unreliable, or expensive to maintain but because of the inconvenience of being pulled over for “random” inspections. Bought a BMW and haven’t been pulled over once, a friend got pulled over 3x in one night in a Skyline.

I’d actually like to see some figures on how many cars were inspected and how many had genuine defects (based on footage/picture it doubt there were many) before I make up my mind on whether it was worth it from a public safety perspective. If I was an attendee though I’d be livid due to the inconvenience though.

Corporal Clegg

Nonsense, I was there and I didn’t see any “hoon cars” with bald tyres or non-working headlights. Most enthusiasts keep their vehicles in a much higher state of maintenance than non-enthusiasts. What is a “hoon” BTW, can you give me a solid definition? Seems it’s rapidly becoming politically incorrect to enjoy cars.

manni93

Disgraceful to say the least. Those who say don’t drive detectable cars should have come and they could have experienced the same scrutiny we faced.

Ps congrats to downshift, Keith, grunt files and everyone involved with bringing the issue to light

Rick

This sends the wrong message to all the law abiding citizens

Melbourne

at least, you guys in QLD know how to vote on the coming elections.

marc

..the cops have been like this for years and I’ll still vote out a muppet.

LC

You are deluded if you think Labor will give you a better deal on this. At least in Victoria, Labor were the ones to get the ball rolling with the anti-car -enthusiast and anti-motorist policies. They were the ones to scrap speed limit tolerance, enact anti-hoon laws with too broad a focus, allowing legitimate enthusiasts to be caught in the net and bought in penalties that can be enacted without judicial oversight.

Voting for the libertarian-minded parties (AMEP, LDP) will get you further.

Dave W

That’s so sad… plenty of car meets in japan, official or otherwise, and not a single cop in sight.

D

As a legitimate car enthusiast I want know what the car community is doing to clean itself up internally. No one is stopping the stupidly modified dangerous vehicles from coming to these events (rusted out old cars slammed on there guts with so much camber that couldn’t turn a corner at 60km/hr). I’m all for clean safely modified vehicles, but it seems everyone is crying wolf of being a target, when the majority of vehicles targeted are legitimately done? The day these car organisations such as amep, grunt files, downshift, lowdown etc start turning people away for ridiculously dangerous modifications, then maybe the police and community will listen….. Just some food for thought.

LC

Most car clubs (where you’ll find actual car enthusiasts) will turf out members caught with dangerous modifications or engage in foolish/dangerous behavior during club meets, and encourage members to dob other members in they see them engaging in that behavior to the organization. Some will even notify police if circumstances warrant it.
Also, the organizers of this event were going to call the police in the event of any stupid behavior. But it sounded like the police came regardless, because, as I said, they need to look like they’re doing something to “fight the road toll” and car enthusiasts are easy targets.

D

LC I agree with your points to a certain extent. I have attended many DS events myself. Now this statement Im about to make isnt to get into an argument with you and I’m certainly not saying I support police actions, this is merely fact. Last year there was a RX7 that was written off and there has been a number of dicks who do/done burnouts leaving the events (some continual repeat offenders). Now I understand that the majority of patrons are well behaved, the problem is that these clowns do bring disrepute to the scene….in saying that whey were allowed back in event after event….You only have to go back through the DS forums to read about this.

Also the quality of cars has dramatically dropped, it seems as though the actual enthusiast spends tens of thousands of dollars and relentless hours working on there cars and they are amazing. The other third, are people who get badly conditioned cars and then do dodgy mods such as cutting springs, then slamming them on there guts…its nearly like its a game to see who can have the most ridiculous looking car… My point with that is that these cars are bringing so much bad attention to the legitimate car enthusiasts, yet they are allowed in event after event. I know a LOT of people with some beautiful cars, but we just wont attend these type of meets because we don’t want to be grouped with either the dicks that do burnouts or the poorly modified dangerous cars.

As I said mate, I do agree with what you bought up, unfortunately past history is starting to repeat itself. That’s why I stated about the internal cleanup…. the intention is kind of there at the moment, but no real action is being taken. The day something is seriously done internally, I think that the police and public views may change.

zahmad

Some of you might not know, but they spent 20 minutes trying to defect a brand new off the showroom floor VF Commodore SSV….

How does that make any sense?

JooberJCW

Probably claimed the paint job is too clean and too shiny, might blind pedestrians crossing the road like a Deer

Adam

We are enthusiast ! Of all shapes and sizes and types of cars . Cops are a joke lately . And I love that they were fining people with uncalibrated machines and fining them . The police were asked to test there own vehicle which they refused . And he took it to a police station to get tested properly and was completely legal

Jack

Stupid police pigs! thats why people hate you!! how about you look at your self.. I’ve seen police men talking on the phone not once not twice no. 5 TIMES… jack gets done about that. seen some speeding, jack gets done about that. but as soon as a normal person does something they get hammered. and these people didn’t even do anything… stupid cops

….how are they not as distracted as everybody else when on a phone…..it’s not right for ANYONE to be holding a phone to their ear in a car……

Freedom of Movement

The harassing, discriminatory behaviour and the fact that not one of these 30 police officers helped look for a lost child is an absolutely disgraceful dereliction of duty that must be examined by the CMC.
What would be happening now if that child was not found alive?

Craig

There is always two sides of a story, this appears one sided. I’m sure if
the organiser or the child’s parent/s requested the assistance of
the traffic police (doing their job) to search for a child, they
would! But looking at the video the police may not be welcome
in the grounds; after the comments by the organiser and someone promoting their
political party. They appear happy to voice their concerns of the
police presence; but were they as keen to assist in locating a child. You
say two hours to find a child, what were they doing…..the child was only
found after other police attended!!! Get the whole story before wasting CMC time………. someone is pushing their political party agenda.

Steve

over 1200 CARS attended. More than double the amount of people which included families with small children. Does the phrase “needle in a haystack” sound familiar? Perhaps you should also get the whole story. Someone is sounding hypocritical.

Brad

Whilst i agree to some degree you need to remember that Highway patrol arent there to look for missing children. Rightly or wrongly, they were there to do the job they were doing
The real question is why it took the Police whos job it is to carry out these types of tasks took 2 hours to attend the scene? Do you do everyone elses job at your work when they dont have the time to do it? I am sure you dont so why expect the Police force to do the same
Why not ask the father of the child why an argument happened in a motor vehicle that was so bad it caused the child to exit the vehicle and run away? I wasnt there but have read that an argument in the vehicle leaving the event lead to the child exiting the car and running away….. happy to be corrected if this was not the case

Michael

Gee, QLD Police at it again. They did this when I was a youth, any modification was deemed illegal, and you were defected for it, Eventually they slowed down when wee got engineer plates put on, but hey that has only slowed them down. Pity they could not look for the missing child though, that may have saved them some face, not much but some.

Joshua Janis Tirrums

Queensland is a bloody police state, especially with Campbell Newman at the wheel. Glad I live in Victoria!

Joe

….glad to live in Victoria, oh come off it……I live in the Police state(VIC)……this is the same Police force that booked over 80 motorcyclists that were going to the GP at Phillip Island……..they were in an ORGANISED run with Police escort at the front and back of the group…….that’s one of many reasons I’m moving to Europe to get out of this nanny country.

When I was young the Police were there to protect and serve, not be a tax collector for respective Governments, and before the defenders cut in, why does Victoria Police have a collections department that does collections for private companies such as Eastlink and Citylink? What has this got to do with road safety……..

Sydlocal

You’re funny! What is the speeding tolerance again in Victoria again?

Cl1ff0

DOGS!

Matthew M

Thanks for covering this issue! I really appreciate the work GruntFiles do to cover these issues, and it is great that you’re covering such disgraceful behaviour by QLD Police.

John

Not content with practically abdicating their responsibility to improve road safety by concentrating on speed, the government, via the police force, ramps up what I see as a bit of war against the motorist.

Why do we put up with it? Can’t they be put back in their cage?

I cannot believe that the police had nothing better to do than harrass enthusiast car owners. Shame on them.

Phil

what is it about uniforms that turn people into a-holes? The Milbrodale mountain classic offroad race held the same weekend in the Hunter Valley NSW saw 6 or 8 cop cars turn up and pull over every motorcyclist that came along. Another example of selective targeting.

S

so fire fighters, ambulance officers, army, navy and airforce are all a-holes???? Isnt that exactly the same as calling all car enthusiasts hoons????

Phil

no it’s not the same. I didn’t use the word all. And you are interpreting a question as a declarative statement

S

Haha you can now see how it can come across but.

Abdullah

Talk about priorities. I am keen to see what happens at the Knox cruises this summer.

Corporal Clegg

As someone who attended this event I was disgusted by the behaviour of the Police. It felt as though we were in the middle of some sort of siege with Police surrounding the event at all entries and exits pulling over dozens of cars with constant lights flashing. It was ridiculous and this is no exaggeration. I was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon but instead we all felt harassed. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m a 41yo professional who has been a car enthusiast all his life. It was insulting in the extreme to be targeted like this. It would have been reasonable for the Police to send a car or two and pull over anyone in a car that looked obviously illegally modified but the scale of the attack on enthusiasts at the event was simply staggering. Better still, they could have come into the grounds and been available to answer questions about modifications and built up some trust. That us car lovers would be so dangerous and important that thirty officers could be assigned to a peaceful enthusiast car event is, quite simply, insane and a gross misuse of resources. It completely destroys any possible chance of goodwill between Police and law-abiding citizens. It is no wonder that Police face aggressive and mistrustful people in the community when the only contact we have with them is this sort of over the top activity. Highway Patrol are known as “jury killers” due to the way in which their over-zealous Policing rips the trust from out of the community and behaviour the likes of which we witnessed last weekend are just as bad. Next Police officer people see after this will result in mistrust and resentment. Way to go QLD Police!

tony

this was a disgrace by the queensland government and police department it is a form of harassment and those responsible for ordering this abuse of power need to be sacked maybe a new uniform decorated with swastikas would be more appropriate for police and government officials in queensland.

Mike

Make sure you vote AMEP!

Bai

No Wonder, all cops get spat at all the time. They are bunch of loosers, who need law behind them to prove their manhood.. nufsaid

Bai

They would not book an 65 years old who is driving on right lane on a Hwy, when i get frustrated and takeover from a wrong lane, I am the HOON??? WTF Get real U bunch of Pumpkin heads..

Jason Bourne

“One example was where a representative from a Holden car dealership
brought along a brand new vehicle from the lot to display it, and was
held up for 30 minutes while officers went over it with a fine tooth
comb in an effort to find something wrong with it. When he protested, he
was told that they would keep going until they found something.”

Totally speechless…….

Patrick

Great article, well written – thanks for sharing.

don’t you worry about that

Queensland, beautiful one day. Harassed to buggery the next. Campbell Newman must old Sir Joh’s love child. I always laugh when I see the smart state number plates. No real smarts came up with this idea. Talk about bogan redneck cops. An inquiry and a few heads need to roll, QLD police needs a real cleanout and culture change, I know at least 2 DH’s who failed in NSW, but warmly welcomed to QLD posts.

wally

all i can say to those police officers that wrote tickets out they should get a life and i hope there families get pulled over and booked a few times for nothing Karma will get them back

John

Wally,the police are out there because the idiots out there make them nessessary. They should get a life? The life they save may one day be yours.

I had the chance of a lift with a co-worker in his 30’s last week……..and his driving and wrecklessness was so bad I momentarily thought my life was in danger. Honestly,what hope have we got when even thirtysomethings drive like that,let alone teenagers?

If everyone followed the rules,the police could then focus on real crooks.
I just don’t get what it is you don’t get.

Gnarley Davidson

Did anyone get that little fat motorbike cop’s name? He is a local cop that spends all his shift targeting cars and bikes. Probably never arrested a crim!

big red legal jeep

it should be a rule for police that no person can be fined until all missing persons cases and items stolen have been solved they are always on about we don’t have enough officers yet they have 30+ to take the day off and wreck the days of people trying to display their passions and hobby’s. makes me think less of our officers

jj

what right do police have to block the entrance and exits of private property? its illegal to block a driveway and it stops other emergance vehicals being able to get in if someone needs an ambulance or there is a fire. the behavious of the police that day was not only aggressive and illegal but also unsafe and selfish!

Bob

Pigs

Job

It’s all a power trip. That’s why they went there, the scum.

Ash

I used to drive a 1979 xd but had to change recently due to being targeted by the police. In a fortnight, I was pulled over three times for a “random” check and was even told by one officer that they target older cars. My car complied to all standards and I always do the right thing on the road but I still had to waste my time while these arrogant wankers inspected my car looking for anything so they could book me. They never found anything wrong and always left in a bad mood as a result. This kind of discrimination exists everywhere.